Max Raabe and Palast Orchester perform at NJPAC on Sunday

With his hair slicked back, tuxedo neatly fitted and a wry smile on his face, Max Raabe is the face of a musical time warp.

Accompanied by his Palast Orchester, Raabe travels the world singing German songs of the 1920s and ’30s, music of the Weimar Republic that he describes as a not-too-distant relative of Cole Porter. Along with the brass, string and accordion players who travel with him, he has made a 25-year career in what he acknowledges is an unlikely niche.

“I think this is the most elegant pop music we ever had,” says Raabe, who brings his quirky favorites to Newark and Princeton this week. “I’m not wondering why it works so well. The music is very fresh. I’m just wondering about this incredible success.”

Raabe first became interested in the dry wit of the cabaret arsenal at age 16, when he filched “I’m Crazy About Hilde” from his parents’ record cabinet in their suburban home in Lunen, a town in northwestern Germany.

“It was very fast and very funny but there was a melancholy and sad subnote,” he says. “I was touched by that, so I bought a few records in flea markets.”

While training to be an opera singer in Berlin, Raabe grew increasingly interested in composers like Friedrich Holländer and Walter Jurmann.

He gathered his musical friends into an orchestra and rehearsed for nearly a year without any engagements.

They first played at the Theater Bowl in Berlin in a foyer, where they drew so much attention they wound up playing through their program twice.

Since then, Raabe and the Palast Orchester have released 20 albums, ranging from traditional fare little known in the United States to genre-and-ocean-crossing Kurt Weill, songs from the American songbook like “I’ve Got You Under My Skin,” original songs in the style of the old ones, and top English-language pop hits.

Raabe and his orchestra have taken on Salt-N-Pepa (reimagined as vaudeville), Tom Jones and Britney Spears. All are available on CD and YouTube.

“Sometimes we have humor like a school class on tour,” says the 48-year-old crooner. “We have some strange ideas — some are good, some are bad, but I think that was a good idea, to bring these pop songs in our style.”

“It’s a mixture between the familiar beat and our own interpretation,” he adds.

“I think Ms. Spears missed the chance to find the black humor in ‘Oops! … I Did It Again.’ I think it was important to show how it’s also possible to sing it.”